The present invention relates generally to crop harvesting machines and, more particularly, to a mechanism for automatically pivotally moving a windrow forming shield from a horizontally extending operative position to a vertically extending transport position to minimize the transport width of a laterally transported mower-conditioner.
The conversion of a crop harvesting machine from a longitudinally movable harvesting position to a laterally movable transport position is desirable for large width machines to minimize the transport width of the harvester. By rotatably pivoting the frame about a pivot axis carried by the draft member the crop harvesting header can be pivotally moved from a generally horizontally extending operative position adjacent the ground to a generally vertically extending transport position to further minimize the lateral transport width of the harvester.
Since the windrow forming shields also project outwardly in a generally horizontal direction, a pivotal movement of the windrow forming shields to a generally vertically extending position would further minimize the lateral transport width of the harvester. Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a mechanism that would automatically pivotally move the windrow shields in a direction opposite to the rotational movement of the header so that both components can be positioned in a generally vertically extending manner substantially parallel to one another.